Currently the highest grossing animated film ever, this Chinese box-office obliterator is being touted as the long-awaited crossover point for the country’s mainstream industry. Forget the adulterated, Communist party-sponsored attempts at blockbusters of the past, self-taught animator Jiaozi’s film is an utterly self-assured pageant of Chinese mythology that, with head-spinning visuals, is a fine technical advertisement for what the country is capable of, in this case on a comparatively small $80m budget. Even if, with its hectic flurry, there’s still room for improvement dramatically.
Demonic tyke Ne Zha (voiced by Lü Yanting) and do-gooder squire Ao Bing (Han Mo) – born from two halves of the same celestial pearl – are rebuilding their physical forms through the power of a sacred lotus. But they’re interrupted when their town Chentang Pass is invaded by razor-sideburned demon Shen Gongbao (Yang Wei), colluding with a gaggle of exiled dragons. One of them is Ao Bing’s father, who should be embarrassed to find that interrupting the lotus ritual apparently dooms his son. So Ne Zha, with Ao Bing squatting his body, must make for Yuxu Palace to ask ovoid-headed immortal Master Wuliang (Wang Deshun) for help.
